Pear Bureau Northwest awarded 2012 specialty crop block grant
Pear Bureau Northwest awarded 2012 specialty crop block grant
The Washington state Department of Agriculture has awarded the Pear Bureau Northwest $75,000 in specialty crop grant funding to promote USA Pears in conjunction with the children’s entertainment brand, “LazyTown.” The project will be tailored to retail partners and schools with live events and co-branded materials.
The grant award will enable Pear Bureau Northwest to engage in an exciting promotion with “LazyTown,” which motivates children to make healthy lifestyle choices, such as keeping active and eating fruits and vegetables to gain energy.
The Pear
A promotional poster featuring ‘LazyTown,’ a popular children’s television show, and USA Pears. Bureau has developed custom point-of-sale materials, including floor signs, channel cards with tear-off recipe pads and life-size standees for retail promotions. The partnership will come to life with appearances by “LazyTown’s” main character, Sportacus, at select schools and retailers that excel in promoting pears.
“We are pleased to receive grant funding for this exciting partnership,” Kevin Moffitt, Pear Bureau Northwest president and chief executive officer, said in a press release. “This award will help raise the awareness of pears and increase pear sales by generating excitement with children and their parents as we bring the established popularity of ‘LazyTown’ to life with schools and our retail partners.”
“LazyTown,” an award-winning television show that motivates kids to make healthier lifestyle choices, is the premier global children’s entertainment brand dedicated to promoting health and well-being. In the United States, the “LazyTown” television series airs twice a day on Sprout, a 24-hour pre-school television network reaching 55 million homes, as well as in a Saturday morning programming block on NBC that reaches more than 100 million homes, and it airs on Telemundo in Spanish nationwide.
Pear Bureau Northwest has completed successful grant projects in partnership with “LazyTown” in Mexico and Colombia, where retail sales of USA Pears increased by 44 percent during the promotion period.
WSDA received grant funding of $3.3 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture this year for projects that support the state’s fruit, vegetable and horticulture growers. The 2012 specialty crop block grant will fund 25 projects managed by the department and other Washington organizations to benefit the third-largest specialty crop industry in the nation.
